Director: John R. Leonetti.
Cast: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Tony Amendola, Alfre Woodard.
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 98 minutes.
Synopsis: After a home invasion by cultists, Mia (Wallis) and John (Horton), find themselves haunted by mysterious goings on. Could the recently purchased freaky doll be the cause of some of these occurences?
Last year THE CONJURING became a smash hit as well as being embraced by the mainstream and fans of the genre. It was the return of classic spooky haunted houses. But somewhere in the vast labyrinth of that film was a short tale of a possessed doll. THE CONJURING saw paranormal investigators take on the haunted house, but we also got to see one of their previous cases that saw them encounter ANNABELLE. It was a memorable part of the film, that played on a simplistic level of suggestion. Now Annabele has her own feature film, and let’s face it, creepy dolls have always done well in horror.
This is a prequel to the events in the previous film, and tells the story of how Annabelle first became possessed. And that word ‘possessed’ is very important here, as it may surprise/disappoint some to hear that this isn’t actually a film about a creepy, murderous doll, but rather the tale of a demon that uses said doll to enter the real world. Annabelle herself does next to nothing, and aside from making a rocking chair creak back and forth, doesn’t even move. Having sat through James Wan’s INSIDIOUS films and THE CONJURING, this spin-off of his work is yet again focused on demons.
Thankfully it is still a rather powerful horror when it’s good. Leonetti comes on board after having served as cinematographer on THE CONJURING, and his look carries over nicely. The 70s are once again brought to life with great production design and costumes. Leonetti also knows how to shoot horror with a number of fantastic sequences littered throughout. There’s a single take shock filled home invasion that cleverly takes guides us through a tense night, as well as an unforgettable scene involving a basement and elevator. In this scene Leonetti generates fear impeccably, thanks to placing horrific images in dark backgrounds. Gradually hearing a sense of realisation wave through the audience that there was more in frame than first thought was quite the experience.
These great moments are outweighed unfortunately, by a myriad of needless loud noises, worthless supporting characters ripped from other horror films, and a number of cliches. The priest character (Amendola) could be any priest from any horror film, and Woodard is wasted as the exposition spewer, who this time is just the owner of a book store. Even the design of the doll fails, although this is held over from THE CONJURING, because it was obviously designed to be creepy in the first place. You can’t help but not contain your laughter for the majoirty of Annabelle’s scenes, especially when she is first revealed. It was doubly disappointing to see the real Annabelle was a soft Raggedy Anne doll, that looks so cute and innocent, that it would probably be more terrifying.
ANNABELLE is nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and actually achieves what it sets out to do. The two leads are a wonderful couple with incredible chemistry, making the dramatic moments worth caring about. With so much promise when it’s given room to breathe and terrify, rather than merely advancing the plot, ANNABELLE could and should have been so much more. A decent horror for a Friday night, but let some more originality flow.
ANNABELLE is out on 10th October.
